Mini Pin-It Reviews #3 – Four Books From NetGalley

Hi everyone and welcome to my third edition of pin-it reviews where I’ll be focusing on four books that I got from the wonderful NetGalley.

1 – Divinity And The Python – Bonnie Randall

What’s it all about?:

Divinity – Where desire and deception both hide in the dark

The Cards Forecast Work
Shaynie Gavin is so much more than the sexy siren who mixes cocktails at The Python. A carpenter with a business plan, Shaynie is trying to amass enough funds to launch her own dream – Divinity, a place where up-cycled furniture from the past is sold alongside Tarot readings forecasting the future – and all in a setting that could not be more perfect: a former funeral parlor. Shaynie’s belief that Divinity is attuned with the passions, the loves, and even the lies of its departed souls, allow her to feel satisfied when the cards she draws there reveal Wands, the Tarot’s symbol for work. And yet…Shaynie would be so grateful if the Tarot would also, just once, illuminate a Hellnight from her past. A lost evening whose scars still slither over her skin, Hellnight haunts Shaynie. Yet when she calls the question of that chilling evening into her deck…

The Cards Forecast Love
…and love appears in the form of pro hockey star Cameron Weste. Weste is haunted by scars and superstitions of his own, and he wants Shaynie’s Tarot to answer far deeper questions than she first guesses this sexy lothario to be capable of. Who knew Weste was this intense? The Tarot, apparently. And yet…

The Cards Forecast The Devil
When Cameron Weste lands in her life, a stalker surfaces too, dropping clues to a connection between Shaynie, Cameron, and her lost, brutal Hellnight. Suddenly every card warns of deception, and nowhere feels safe. Shaynie and Cameron have to fight for their love – and their lives – as The Devil, their stalker, is determined to turn the Death Card for them both.

Would I recommend it?:

Probably!

Star rating (out of 5):

2- If You Could See What I See – Cathy Lamb

What’s it all about?:

In this moving, insightful new novel, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb delves into the heart of going home again, the challenge of facing loss—and the freedom of finally letting go…

For decades, the women in Meggie O’Rourke’s family have run Lace, Satin, and Baubles, a lingerie business that specialises in creations as exquisitely pretty as they are practical. The dynamic in Meggie’s family, however, is perpetually dysfunctional. In fact, if Meggie weren’t being summoned back to Portland, Oregon, by her grandmother, she’d be inclined to stay away all together.

Since her husband’s death a year ago, Meggie’s emotions have been in constant flux, and so has her career as a documentary film maker. Finding ways to keep the family business afloat—and dealing with her squabbling sister and cousin—will at least give her a temporary focus. To draw customers to their website, Meggie decides to interview relatives and employees about their first bras and favorite lingerie. She envisions something flip and funny, but the confessions that emerge are unexpectedly poignant. There are stories of first loves and aching regrets, passionate mistakes and surprising rendezvous. And as the revelations illuminate her family’s past, Meggie begins to find her own way forward.

With warmth and unflinching humour, If You Could See What I See explores the tender truths we keep close—and what can happen when we find the courage to bare them to the world.

Would I recommend it?:

But of course!

Star rating (out of 5):

3 – Vatican Waltz – Roland Merullo

What’s it all about?:

This book is for those who want a journey of the soul. What were your feelings about God, the Divine, your own soul when you were growing up? Did you go to the church of your parents? Being in that building, where your family said their prayers, did it inspire you also?

This book is about a young girl growing up with the gift of being a mystic. Sometimes, no words are needed to reach the heart of Divine love. Silence is the fare for admission to the land where you encounter the God/Goddess.
This young girl grows up with the gift of contemplative prayer. She shares her prayer life with her parish priest, who sees before him a future saint in the making. She receives messages from the Divine voice & visions that the Catholic Church in America is dying. Little or no vocations to the Priesthood. Her visions tell Her its time for Women to become Priests, like in the times of the Apostles. This voice is so strong that Her parish priest writes to an archbishop, who is willing to see Her. This archbishop doesn’t share Her vision for the catholic Church, for Women have been banned for centuries. But he sees that this young Woman is special. He can’t put his finger on it though.
So, He asks someone higher up, in the holy city of Rome, the Vatican, to see Her.

And off goes this young, innocent Woman, on a plane for the 1st time. But before She lands in Rome, a group of people knows She coming, and why. Would you have the faith, the trust in your soul, to obey the Divine voice & visions? This is an unexpected journey, full of excitement, danger & perhaps a change in the wind. Take this trip of the spirit. It could one day be yours to make also.

Would I recommend it?:

Not sure.

Star rating (out of 5):

4- Beloved Strangers: A Memoir – Maria Chaudhuri

What’s it all about?:

On and on we dream, we wish, we love – no matter that the dreams come to an end, the wishes evolve or that love dissipates like dust in the wind. Perhaps, what matters only is that we have lived long enough to dream, hard enough to wish and indisputably enough to love. One of Maria’s early memories growing up in Dhaka is of planning to run away with her friend Nadia. Even then, Maria couldn’t quite figure out why she longed to escape. It is not that home is an unhappy place. It’s just that in her family, joy is ephemeral. With a mother who yearns for the mountains, the solitude and freedom to pursue her own dreams and career, and a charismatic but distant father who finds it difficult to expresses emotion, they are never able to hold on to happiness for very long. Maria studies the Holy Book, says her daily prayers and wonders if God is watching her. She dreams, like her mother, of unstitching the seam of her life.

It is her neighbour, Bablu, the Imitator of Frogs, who both excites and repulses Maria by showing her a yellowing pornographic magazine, but it is Mala, a girl her own age who comes to work in their house, whose wise eyes and wicked smile makes her dizzy with longing. When she moves to New England for university at eighteen Maria meets Yameen, a man who lives in a desperately squalid apartment in Jersey City, woos her with phone calls and a marathon night of drinking in New York bars, and is not what he seems… From Dhaka to New York, this is a candid and moving account of growing up and growing away, a meditation on why people leave their homes and why they sometimes find it difficult to return. “Beloved Strangers” is an unforgettable memoir marking the arrival of a brilliant new voice from Bangladesh.

Would I recommend it?:

Maybe!

Star rating (out of 5):

COMING UP SOON ON MY PIN-IT REVIEWS: Four Books That Fall Into My “Random” Category!